Ranking Member Shaheen Travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly High Level Week

WASHINGTON - Yesterday, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, traveled to New York for the United Nations General Assembly High Level Week and met with Prime Minister Al-Thani of Qatar, the Chair of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željko Komšic, President Al-Sharaa of Syria, President Aoun of Lebanon and President Lee of the Republic of Korea. Ranking Member Shaheen also held meetings with Acting U.S. Representative to the UN Dorothy Shea and UN Under Secretary General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo.

Ranking Member Shaheen also conducted interviews on MSNBC's Morning Joe and New Hampshire's WMUR as well as participated in fireside conversations hosted by Axios and Foreign Policy Magazine.

Watch Ranking Member Shaheen's interview with MSNBC's Morning Joe and WMUR, and her speaking events with Axios and Foreign Policy here.

Key quotes from Ranking Member Shaheen:

Syria:

• MSNBC: "We have an opportunity in Syria that we haven't had in decades. It's been since the late 60s that anyone from Syria addressed the UN and Interim President al-Sharaa is going to do that this week. I had a chance to meet with him in August in Damascus, and we have an opportunity to change the narrative around Syria, but we need to provide support to the interim government."

• MSNBC: "What we need to do is to lift the sanctions that we've had on Syria so that business can invest, so that people can feel like there is an opportunity for a better life there. Stability in Syria would go a long way to addressing so many of the conflicts in the Middle East."

• Axios: "As President al-Sharaa said to us, he said, 'we could be a model for stability in the Middle East, but we need help.' So we're working to repeal the Caesar sanctions that we had on President Assad when he was killing hundreds of hundred of thousands of his own people, and allow business investment so that people know there's an opportunity for hope, that they can see a united Syria that allows them to work to raise their families and to build a country."

• WMUR: "The president has called for the lifting of sanctions on Syria that we put in place when the Assad regime was killing hundreds of thousands of their own people. I have legislation that's bipartisan that would lift those sanctions in a way that would allow investment in Syria. I think that's really important if we're going to provide stability in the country."

Ukraine/Russia:

• MSNBC: "Clearly, Vladimir Putin is going to continue to escalate in Ukraine, unless we put pressure on him. President Trump has drawn seven lines in the sand now, and he's allowed Putin to cross those. Putin is escalating the drones in Poland, the incursion into Estonia's airspace. It's all about testing NATO.

• MSNBC: "We need to get an end to this war that's killing thousands of people on both sides, President Trump says he wants to do that, and yet he's been unwilling to take any action to make that happen."

• Axios: "We need to ramp up the pressure significantly against Vladimir Putin."

• Axios: "We need to provide arms and support to Ukraine. We need to take up the Graham Blumenthal sanctions bill in Congress that has over 85 senators as cosponsors. We need to pass that. We need to send a strong message to Vladimir Putin that he has done. He needs to end this conflict. He needs to end it now."

• Axios: "Why President Trump has allowed him to embarrass not only the president but the United States, why he welcomed him with open arms in Alaska and got nothing for it."

Israel/Palestine:

• MSNBC: "We need to see an end to the war. The Netanyahu government needs to get back to the negotiating table. They need to get a ceasefire. They need to bring home the remaining hostages, whose families are just desperate.

• MSNBC: "What's the plan after this war ends? So far, the Netanyahu government hasn't told us anything other than that they continue to try and take over the West Bank, which is not the direction that most people want to see."

• Axios: "The people, the Palestinians in Gaza are being bombed and they have no place to go. It's not like they're being allowed to go someplace that's safe. So we haven't seen yet what the plan is for what happens at the end of this war, and I believe we need a two-state solution, I think that's the only thing that is going to long term, prevent this kind of conflict in the future."

• Axios: "What I'm concerned about is the continued conduct of the war in Gaza and the failure of Israel to understand the concern in the international community about what's happening there. When we see on our news every night children starving in Gaza because humanitarian aid isn't being allowed in, the people of America and the people of the world are concerned."

• Axios: "The reality is that Palestinians are being bombed. They're being killed. Children are starving. They're on the verge of a famine, and we need to see more done to address that."

• Axios: "I share the frustration with the indiscriminate bombing that we're seeing from Israel. I think we would all agree that Israel should be able to defend itself, but the bombing into Qatar, into Syria, into southern Lebanon, I think, is not in the long-term best interest of the defense of Israel or those other countries."

Women, Peace and Security and Family Planning Commodities:

• FP: "The law remains on the books. It is funded in the appropriations bill, the defense appropriations bill that has passed the committee. And if we can actually get an appropriations process and keep the government funded, it will be funded, and it will continue to make a difference. And I think it's important for us to continue to make the case that women at the table, women as part of negotiations, make a difference, and we need to continue to be clear about that."

• FP: "I sent a staff member to Belgium in August and early August, and what she found is that the contraceptives that were there were still good. They were going to be good for several years in the future, there was no reason to destroy them, and that not only do we have NGOs who have offered to take them and distribute them, but the government of Belgium has also offered to do that. So the fact that this administration would destroy contraceptives that could make such a difference for women in so many places where they don't have access to it is just unforgivable. And not only is it a waste of about $10 million that the taxpayers have paid for, but they're also going to spend $160,000 to destroy if they do that. I hope that everyone, if you haven't spoken out about this, that you will, because it's a travesty."

Future of American Foreign Policy:

• Axios: "There's been bipartisan consensus that the biggest threat to the United States, both economically and militarily, has been China. It's what the Trump administration has said. And yet, if we look at all of the policy decisions, or a majority of policy decisions that have been made by the Trump administration since the President came into office, what they have done is strengthened China's position and weakened America's position globally."

• Axios: "Here at the UN for example, the pulling back from international organizations doesn't make America stronger. I mean, we can all agree that there's reform that's needed. We need to. Think about how to do things more effectively and more efficiently, but for us not to be at the table does not promote America's interests."

• Axios: "I still think it's very important for the United States to have a bipartisan view of foreign policy, because the administration is going to change in elections, but if we have relationships and bipartisan support in Congress for policy positions, then those can continue."

• Axios: "What we've done is to totally dismantle all of areas in which we can make a difference, whether it's the Global Engagement Center at the Department of State, Voice of America, Radio Free Asia-all of the entities that allowed us to provide a counter narrative, to give the facts to people around the world, are being dismantled by this administration, and there's nothing to replace it. And so, who's moving in? China's moving in."

• FP: "One of the things we're seeing and a pullback from international organizations, whether it's the UN or various rule setting bodies, is that if we are not at the table, it's China who is going to set the rules of the road, and that is not going to be done in America's interests, and probably not in the interest of most democracies in the world. So it doesn't make any sense that we are pulling back and giving this opening to China to take over and include additional people and leadership positions at international bodies."

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